Posts tagged “90’s”

The last couple of weeks have been stressful for us, we are moving to a new house and when ever I think of moving, all sorts of images come to my mind; tons of boxes, heavy furniture, and countless useless things that we have accumulated through out the years. Whenever I think of moving, I just want to grab a paper bag and breath deeply – or vomit. I think the problem might be on my DNA; Colombians don’t move often, we stay in the same house for long periods of time. I was 16-years old when we moved for the first time. Since then, my parents have moved 3 more times. I have been living in the US for 9 years and since I landed, I have moved 7 times. My moving rate is of 1 house every 1.28 years! At this point you would think that I have nailed down a moving technique, but no, I still find the whole process to be very painful. From finding boxes, packing and throwing things away, to unpacking and finding new places for all our things. All those hours are painful, just unpacking your clothes and organizing your closet can take forever. The worse part, is the first night you spend in the new house. To walk though the house, opening every box in search for your tooth-brush is priceless. And to add to the drama, this time we have a wild card, or better said, a wild child with us, so we will see how everything unfolds, I guess the important thing is to grab that paper bag, breath deeply and just do it! (Stop complaining).

Since we started this process, I’ve been singing in my head “The Old Apartment” by Barenaked Ladies. I specially like this part:
Why did you paint the walls?
Why did you clean the floor?
Why did you plaster over the hole I punched in the door?

And we did have to plaster a hole in the wall, but don’t worry, nobody punched it. We had to fix something on the electric panel, and the electrician left us with a hole in our kitchen wall. “WHY DIDN’T YOU PLASTER OVER THE HOLE YOU MADE IN OUR WALL?” My friend Meme, suggested to hang a painting over the hole to cover it, and tell the buyer that it is a colombian tradition to leave a painting in the house (for good luck) but after thinking about it, we decided to cover the hole – with plaster. A painting over an electric panel right next to the refrigerator might look suspicious.
“The Old Apartment” reminded me of a Barenaked Ladies album that I haven’t listen to in a long time. Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits 1991-2001. Back in the day, this was one of my favorite albums, and this week I have been listening to it over and over. I forgot how amazing their songs are, and listening to them after all these years brings comfort to my soul, in the middle of all this craziness.

I want to leave you with my favorite songs; a little tribute to a great band, enjoy:

PS: William I couldn’t pull off the comparative analysis between classical music and contemporary rock. I might need to research the topic for a couple of years. 🙂

Yesterday after I posted “I can’t remember the 90’s”, many songs from that decade started to pop in my head. One song lead to another and millions of memories of friends, places, and stages of my life came to mind. I love remembering and I specially love when the memories are weaved into the music. So here they are, my second batch of songs from the 90’s.

Enjoy!

This one is for my friend Melissa F.

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Since I started writing this block, I noticed that every time I think of the “good old days”, I always go back to the 80’s. I remember this decade as it had happened yesterday; the fashion, the music, the T.V. shows, everything is vividly inserted in my mind. What is strange about having these clear memories, is that I was only 2-years old in 1980 and 11 in 1989. Most people start building their memories at the age of 3 (on average). If I try really hard, I can remember when I was 4 years-old, but I’m certain I can not remember 1980 and 1981. Even if I was able to remember those years, you are not really aware of a decade’s music, fashion and trends until you are much older. Probably I was only aware of the 80’s culture from 1986 to 1989. So, how come I can remember it so well? And how come the 90’s are only composed of vague images that pop in my head once in a while? From age 11 to 21, technically my golden years, I can’t seem to remember much. After thinking about it, I came up with a couple of theories, actually 2 theories, about the mental tricks my mind is playing with me.

1. A lot of the culture of the 80’s extended into the 90’s. Many important bands like Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Poison, etc. from the 80’s were still big in the early 90’s. The same goes for the fashion, and TV shows. In general, there is not a clean break between the 80’s and the 90’s; much of what we catalogue as 80’s continued to exist in the early 90’s. I guess, what I’m trying to say is that when you think of big hair, colorful make up and tight pants – mostly on guys, you think of the 80’s, but technically many of these images are also from the early 90’s.

2. In my mind, the 90’s didn’t happened that long ago, I have a hard time telling myself that this decade ended 11 years ago. Maybe it is because since then, life has speed up and it feels like, every thing has happened really fast. What ever the reasons are, in my mind, there is nothing distinctive about the 90’s that would let me separate it from the 00’s and it all blends together in a category I like to call “recent past”. However, I must accept that it has been a while since the 90’s and that there are special memories that should be pulled apart and filed in their own folders. Basically, I need to separate the 90’s from the “recent past”, archive my memories and let it go.

In order to do this, first I have to find out what exactly happened during those years. I did some research and found my favorite TV shows, movies and songs from the 90’s. I think this will help me identify the 90’s with its distinctive memories and at the same time pay tribute, to a fantastic decade!

So here we go:

TV SHOW
Seinfeld – This is the best show ever! No other show makes me laugh like Seinfeld
Alley McBeal -“My first, my last, my everything”
Dawson’s Creek – Poor Dawson, he started to lose his hair and at the end, nobody wanted to date him.
Felicity – I Loved this show!
The X Files – Did Mulder and Scully ever got together? I have to admit that these was a very long show and at the end I lost interest.
Beverly Hills 90210 – Classic
Friends – Central Perk
Fraiser – I always thought that Niles – Fraiser’s brother was hilarious
Melrose Place – Classic
3rd Rock from the Sun

MOVIES
Shindler’s List 1993 – I still remember the scene where everything is black and white except for the girl on the red coat
The Usual Suspects 1995 – After this movie I became a big fan of Kevin Spacey
The Sixth Sense 1999 – “I see dead people”
Se7en 1995 – Brad Pitt! – I still remember the guy that die from gluttony – Nasty!
L.A Confidential 1997 – Kevin Spacey I love you!
Pulp Fiction 1994 – Best Soundtrack
The Silence of the Lamps 1991 -” Good evening, Clarice”
Forrest Gump 1994 – “Run Forrest”
Titanic 1997 – “I am the king of the world”
Jerry Macguire 1996 – “Show me the money”

MUSIC
So, these are my favorite songs from the 90’s. It was hard to pick only 10, but I think theses songs have been somehow “Iconic” in my life. Enjoy!